How To Play Mlb Showdown

How To Beat the Showdown Mode in MLB The Show '21

Showing up big in Sony's most popular home-grown franchise

M LB The Show '21 has a new game mode called Showdown, and some players are having a hard time getting through its gauntlet of challenges. So I've put together a little cheat sheet for beating Showdown. Enjoy!

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Showdown is a game mode in Diamond Dynasty that challenges players to draft a team and get it ready to face off in a do-or-die final battle. This usually means making small, incremental upgrades that are useful and make the team stronger as a whole than the sum of their parts.

This mode puts you up against a number of challenges. Each one you beat gives you access to more players to draft and a wider variety of perks, slowly but surely growing your strength for the final battle.

In some ways, Showdown is pretty realistic to what being a real manager in Major League Baseball would be like. Drafting right is key, and making the right decisions in the war room is essential to getting deep into the challenges and giving yourself the best shot possible to win it all.

Let's get into some Showdown drafting tips to give your team the best chance to succeed.

POSITIONAL PRIORITIES

The big twist in this mode is that each Showdown is different, meaning you will have different needs to be filled for every challenge.

Knowing what you will need for a specific challenge before going into it is essential to giving it your best shot.

However, there are some commonalities in MOST of the challenges, and having a strong pitcher can fix a lot of holes in your roster.

Your starting pitcher is the player most often put to the test on defense, so finding a beast on the mound allows you to focus more on hitters and base runners and less on defensive-minded outfields.

For a lot of Showdowns, you just need one really strong pitcher, and building a top-heavy bullpen in terms of skill is probably a smarter route than spending a lot of time and resources on a massive pitching group. Just get a starter, reliever, and closer and you are good to go.

Aside from pitchers, the positions you need to focus on drafting high on are mostly on offense. In batting-focused challenges, you will need a mix of power and contact, and throwing in some baserunning won't hurt either.

MANAGING YOUR LINEUPS

Like almost anything in life, reading the instructions before diving headfirst into the action is a great way to give yourself a head start over a lot of the competition.

That same motto holds true in Showdown. You can gain a serious edge for every competition just by reading what the challenge will actually be.

Challenges can be generalized as either short or long. Short ones are a sprint, where you can usually just use your top talent to overpower the other team. Long ones take a bit more thinking.

Read into the specifics of every challenge. Facing off against a left-handed pitcher? Set up your batting lineup to punish it. If your challenge is focused on hitting, arrange your lineup to knock it out of the park.

Thinking through a situation before diving into it — unsurprisingly — gives you the best chance to at the very least maximize your team as you head into the challenge.

OVERALL IS OVERRATED

Look at someone like Mookie Betts — for a 98 overall, Betts is surprisingly weak in some key stats.

Overalls seem like the easiest way to figure out the strongest players to recruit to your team, but the overall stat can be deceiving.

When you want the best pitcher for your team, make sure to look at the stats that actually have something to do with pitching. Does it really matter if your pitcher is good at bunting? No, no it does not.

It is more important that your players are great at what they do best than being alright at everything. Not every player on your team needs to be able to steal a base or bomb home runs over the wall, but people need to be the best at their area of expertise.